North Vietnam in the Year 1972

Abstract

-Military pressure resulting from the failure of the so-called Easter offensive to deliver decisive victory in the South. And, military pressure in the North from resumed U.S. air strikes and new mining and interdiction moves against shipping routes leading into North Vietnam. -Leadership system pressure, developing from doctrinal differences of long standing and now involving a particularly stubborn divisiveness deep into the ranks of Party members in the North (the Lao Dong) and the South (the People's Revolutionary Party). -Economic pressure, especially in the agricultural sector, the result of the now chronic manpower shortages, past resource allocation errors, and from the reduction of imports, by at least 50%, due to the waterway closures. -External or diplomatic pressure, the result of the ever-widening gulf between the DRV and the socialist world (particularly its major allies, the USSR and Communist China) which turns on divergent assessment of the Indochina scene but, at a deeper level, involves conflicting national interests.